“Viva Barça. Viva Catalunya”

May 12, 2012

I’ve been back for almost a week and am just getting around to writing my last Europe blog. It’s a busy time for me, which I’ll touch in an upcoming blog post. But for now, a little recap of my 2 day adventure in Barcelona.

Day 1

My first day in Barcelona I visited the famous Pedrera building designed by Antoni Gaudi. I think most tourists in Barcelona visit his attractions like the Sagrada Familia (which I saw my first time in Barcelona), and this building definitely had a lot of visitors.

We walked up to the terrace of the Pedrera first which had a great view of the city, and also featured some really awesome architecture. The weirdness of Gaudi’s work is pretty distinct, and it’s not anything I’ve ever seen in a building before. The terrace leads into the attic of the Pedrera which had a mini-museum of the building as well as Gaudi’s history and work.

You could also visit an apartment in the Pedrera, which featured a lot of period furniture and props. I put Android in a high chair. I don’t know if I was allowed to…but whatever.

That night, my dad and I headed to the Camp Nou to watch FC Barcelona‘s last home game of the season. It was also Pep Guardiola’s last “real” game as Barça’s head coach, so we got to see the little celebration they had for him throughout the game.

I will admit I’m not the biggest soccer/football fan in the world, but I do cheer for Barça and I’m a big enough fan to understand how epic and once-in-a-lifetime it is to see a game at Camp Nou. The entire game I was just IN SHOCK that I was actually there with 98 000+ other people cheering for the team. Barça won 4-0, with Messi putting up an AMAZING performance (he scored every goal). The crowd got so loud when Messi scored the hat trick goal. It was so loud I thought the arena was shaking.

Overall it was one of the most memorable sporting experiences in my life and I feel so lucky to have been a part of that crowd cheering with other Barça fans. (FYI, the title of this blog post was a cheer people were chanting at the end of Guardiola’s farewell speech).

Day 2

The second day was pretty tame. We only went to Park Guell (of course more Gaudi), but I didn’t take that many pictures because I’ve been to the park there before. I did get a picture of Android there though.

Overall I had a fun 2 weeks in Europe, and it was a nice vacation between the end of the semester and work.